Chapter 182 The Will of the Grandmaster (1/2)

It was snowing. The Five Peaks of Qing Xuan were shrouded in clouds. Rays of different colors shot out from within and dispersed the smoke-like clouds. These rays formed beautiful intersections in the sky.

The colored rays were all of different colors and intersected with each other, and they brought some liveliness to the quiet sect. Qing Xuan had not seen such liveliness in a long time.

Partially, it was due to the cold and detached nature of a Daoist. Though, the fact that Qing Xuan had been walking on a downward slope contributed to it too.

There were the least rays coming from Tianyuan and Zifu Peak. These two peaks were where the strongest in Qing Xuan resided. The rays were light, and most people rode in the wind. As for the disciples from Qingliang and Yuyang, they were mainly relying on instruments. Qingliang was the lower house, and there were not many disciples there. On the other hand, Yuyang was the upper house and had a lot of disciples. They had come as a big group.

The headcount was actually less than one hundred and fifty. This was an uncommon occurrence for one of the four main Daoist sects.

Rays and clouds reached the Hall of Qing Xuan as disciples of Qing Xuan arrived. They were all dressed differently, and only a few wore Daoist robes.

The people started streaming in. Some of them were old and wrinkly, and some were young and attractive. The older ones were not necessary the elder-teachers, while the younger ones might even have grand disciples below them. The best of cultivators would always look under forty of age regardless of how numbered their days were. It was normal for those who had put an effort in their looks to have the appearance of a teenager.

However, most cultivators did not care much about their looks. They would just let things take its natural course, and with their strong mana, the aging process was slowed down anyway.

The Huandan cultivators who looked old were those who attain the state of Huandan at a later stage in life. To preserve their Qi and blood, they had used techniques to store their Qi and blood and made themselves look old. After they had attained the state of Huandan, they just could not be bothered to correct it. The reason why they needed to preserve their Qi and blood was because Huandan concerned the engagement of Qi by the Yin spirit. This Qi was not the normal Qi from cultivation, but also include one's Qi of Vigour, Qi of Essence, and one's innate Qi of Vitality. The Yin spirit could not engage the Qi if there was an insufficiency with them.

This was why most cultivators would not give up hopes on attaining the state of Huandan until their last breath. They would store their Qi and blood to look old, but they were actually brimming with life.

There were more normal disciples who had not attained the state of Huandan than the elders who had attained Huandan. The upper house had ten over times more disciples than the lower house. However, the upper house only outnumbered the lower house by ten over people if one were to look only at those who had attained the state of Chushen and Ruhua. This was because there were only ten over disciples in the lower house.

Those who managed to get into the lower house were a lot better than those from the upper house in terms of potential and established practices. Few hundred years back, before the tragedy befell Qing Xuan, most of the cultivators who attained the Sixth Transformation of Huandan and above were mainly from the lower house.

This was because the disciples from the lower houses were drawn to Qing Xuan by some form of trigger than even they did not notice. In fact, the disciples from lower houses might be amongst the rank of Celestials in one of their previous reincarnations.

To look into the history, since Grandmaster Yuanqing, there were almost thirty-three generations now. There were a total of forty immortal Zhenrens, and roughly six or seven amongst them were once the likes of Dixian or Guixian in their past lives. However, after the many cycles of reincarnation, they could no longer recall their past lives and had become someone new.

For these people, even if they managed to recover their memories from their past lives, the disturbance they would face would be significantly lesser.

If Qing Xuan fell out of the rank of four main Daoist sects, its fate would go rapidly downhill. Those prospective disciples with great potential might not have chosen to come to Qing Xuan anymore.

Meanwhile, the reason why only ten disciples were admitted into the lower house was because ten was the end of all numbers. It was extreme, and it was also one of the most ancient symbols in the world. It signified completeness.